It's this most irrational of rationale that
punctuates Takashi Shimizu's domesticated genre-horror, The Grudge (aka
Juon): on second viewing, totally absurdist, yet as an initial, unexpected
encounter of the lights-out variety, utterly pant-wetting. What exactly compels
a person to pull sheets over their head and hope that "it" will just go away?
Not intelligence, surely. Likewise, Shimizu clearly works to idiot-proof
mechanisms, quite content to push our buttons through the familiarity of
playbook shock tactics, audio-terror and chronic character stupidity; this
includes the obvious, such as ignoring the nearest exit point or making like an
elderly snail under the impending death-gaze of a contortionist she-devil...

The
anamorphic image has a shade of softness, close-ups seem to show
sharpness and I even see some film grain. Subtitles are excellent -
colors seem true and slightly muted. Good extras with a commentary. I
imagine we will compare this to the other existing versions from
alternate regions eventually. This is a good DVD with some care put into
the image and extras. out
of